James Hendrickson Forest (November 2, 1941 – January 13, 2022) was an American writer, Orthodox Christian lay theologian, educator, and peace activist.
As a young man, Forest served in the US Navy, working with a meteorology unit at the US Weather Bureau headquarters near Washington, DC.
[7] In 1968, while Forest worked as Vietnam Program Coordinator of the Fellowship of Reconciliation, Jim and thirteen others, mainly Catholic clergy, broke into nine Milwaukee draft boards, removing and burning some of the files in a nearby park while holding a prayer service.
From 1989, he was international secretary of the Orthodox Peace Fellowship [Wikidata] as well as associate editor of its quarterly journal, In Communion.
[10][11] A journalist and writer, Forest's books include Praying with Icons, Ladder of the Beatitudes, The Road to Emmaus: Pilgrimage as a Way of Life, Loving Our Enemies: Reflections on the Hardest Commandment, Eyes of Compassion: Learning from Thich Nhat Hanh, biographies of Thomas Merton (Living With Wisdom), Dorothy Day (All Is Grace) and Daniel Berrigan (At Play in the Lions' Den), and several children's books, including Saint Nicholas and the Nine Gold Coins, Saint George and the Dragon and Silent as a Stone: Mother Maria of Paris and the Trash Can Rescue.